2016 Goose Island Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company (owned by AB InBev) in Chicago, IL 

Purchased: 16.9oz bottle bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2017 (bottled 15SEP16 aka September 15, 2016)

Style/ABV: Russian Imperial Stout, 13.1%

Reported IBUs: 60

Being into weird fetish shit has its payoffs. Like when Goose Island InBev (Dilly Dilly) drops a beer brewed with chipotle peppers, cocoa nibs, and maple syrup bourbon barrels.

Prop is -- of course -- the "Chicago exclusive" deviant of Bourbon County. Every year Goose Island brews something different (exclusively for Chicago; because Goose Island are the abusive husband and Chicago beer drinkers are the helpless spouse), and it looks something like this:

Dilly Dilly

This was not out of my cellar -- by the way. I acquired this bottle after painstakingly camping in line for some odd 20 hours at Binny's on Black Friday 2017. The appearance is like every other Bourbon County. Dark, black, Stout-y. Head retention is like "nah."

2016 Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout

Straight away on the aroma...magic. The chipotle peppers they used in this beer are beautiful and impart a rich and earthy aroma that touches coffee, ash, roasted chipotle, chipotle pepper seeds, and lively chiles. There's a touch of chocolate and fudge hanging around in the back to bring home the Mexican chocolate. The bourbon/barrel on the nose is pretty mute. That could be due to the fact that this beer is over a year old at this point.

On the taste: weird fetish things I love. Prop 16 is divisive...throwing a bunch of hot peppers at Bourbon County is always going to upset a few people. I love this more than any other Prop vintage, I think. This is a rich, dense, Mexican-chocolate stout. You get ample chipotle, tons of chocolate and truffle chocolate, tons of earthy spice that brings in coffee and ash and earthy peppers. There's a kiss of the maple sweetness and bourbon, and the finish is heat with some booze. 

This is full-bodied, complex, has great depth, and great duration. I dunno what else to say. Up front: big Mexican chocolate, chocolate, fudge, COMPLEX peppery heat; the mids roll into more spice and pick up bourbon. The spice adds earthy notes, coffee, ash. The back end kisses you with maple sweetness and fades to light spice and heat. 

Rating: Strong Divine Brew (5.0/5.0 Untappd)

This is a criminally underrated beer if you are into this kind of thing. If you're not, cool.

Random Thought: I wish more BA releases would consider these peppery beers. Peppers go so well in these big barrel-aged stouts. I'm just amazed at how well Bourbon County plays with basically all the adjuncts.

2017 Goose Island Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company (owned by AB InBev) in Chicago, IL 

Purchased: 16.9oz bottle bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2017 (bottled 01SEP17)

Style/ABV: Russian Imperial Stout, 14.0%

Reported IBUs: 60

I guess the preferred nomenclature is "cassia." Oh hey, kind reader, is that a banana in your pocket or your beer. I'm not even mad that InBev did a Budweiser ad making fun of adjunct beers. Obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't have stood in line for 20 hours for this one. Tonight's beer is a pastry boi in all the ways imaginable. Prop is -- of course -- the "Chicago exclusive" deviant of Bourbon County. Every year Goose Island brews something different (exclusively for Chicago; because Goose Island are the abusive husband and Chicago beer drinkers are the helpless spouse), and it looks something like this:

"May Contain Wheat"

The 2017 features banana puree, cassia bark, and almonds. This beer of course maintains the typical BCBS appearance...dark body, little light penetration, thick, brown head. There's some sediment and maybe a touch of residual oil stuff on the top of the beer.

2017 Goose Island Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout

Most impressive is the beer's aroma, which absolutely nails you with banana puree, bananas, and banana bread. In fact there's QUITE A BIT of banana on the nose. It really distracts you from the base beer, which is distant in the aroma. A secondary aroma is the cassia which provides a woody/earthy birch-wood-like cinnamon flavor. The banana cinnamon notes inspire all sorts of desserts, from banana fosters to spiced banana bread to banana pudding. It's a lovely aroma and something totally unexpected and unique.

The big surprise about Prop 2017 is just (A) how complex and rich the beer is and (B) how different it is from the regular. Where regular BCBS 2017 is an exercise in chocolate and sweetness, Prop 2017 is more about complex layers of interesting flavors. There's the banana element, the cinnamon element, the banana-cinnamon-bread thing, the chocolate-banana, the chocolate-cinnamon kiss of Mexican chocolate, bourbon, macaroons, coconut, and some nice booze (with warming alcohol to boot). This is flavorful stuff and it is not one-note. It's not just banana puree. It's not overly sweet.

And that is what differentiates Prop 2017 from other beers. Even other BCBS variants. BCBS is always intriguing but some of the variants are more or less dialed in. This IS dialed in with tons of complexity, depth, duration, and novelty. It's a novelty beer so we should clarify that up front. It is also in pretty limited supply...so there's that too. Up front you get a lot of banana, cinnamon, cassia, banana bread, banana fosters, and banana wafer; the mids roll into macaroon, vanilla, bourbon, Mexican chocolate, chocolate; the back end even features some pulpy banana and green banana, along with the spirit. It's sweet but sweet like a dessert, which there are layers of in the beer. 

Rating: Strong Divine Brew (5.0/5.0 Untappd)

obligatory potato box pic

So is this worth trading for? I think this is a worthy novelty, and I'm pretty happy I got to try it. If you don't like bananas then you're in luck. If you do like bananas, you probably should make an effort to grab one bottle of this. I wonder how this is going to age, especially since I still see people flipping bottles of the 2013 and 2014 props. 2015 was obviously infected, and 2016 is weird niche fetish shit. Which I kind of like. 

Random Thought: And yeah, it turns out people do actually drink this beer. If you're wondering what the inspiration is...a very strange few weeks, I think. I recently parted with my car of 14 years which was surprisingly personal and hard to do. Cars are in many ways an extension of ourselves, and I put a lot of miles and memories in mine. So as an ode to my '04 Taurus, I'll see you on the other side...

2017 Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout - a divisive beer that reminds me of Prop '16

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company (owned by AB InBev) in Chicago, IL 

Purchased: 16.9oz bottle bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2017

Style/ABV: Russian Imperial Stout, 12.9%

Reported IBUs:60

It's been a long time since I've featured Goose Island's Bourbon County Coffee Stout on this blog. I wanted to briefly throw out my thoughts on this year's vintage, because it seems to be pretty hit and miss with people.

So first and foremost, let's note that this year's BCBS coffee is brewed with Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso. Every year Goose uses a different coffee blend:

The pro and con of using a different coffee blend every year is that you get some very different tasting vintages. I seem to recall the 2015 coffee having more citrusy notes. I think a lot of people really cling to the 2012 and 2014 vintages. And yeah, just every year you get a slightly different beer because the coffee is different.

So here's the deal with the 2017 vintage...aside from pouring out and looking like BCBS (nothing new here), the aroma on this beer is a blend of velvety smooth Mexican chocolate, bourbon, raisins, vanilla, and ash. 

And that really carries through in the taste. This is an EARTHY and ASHY beer. I'm guessing a lot of that is due to the blend of coffee they used. There's almost a level of spice and heat present in the beer. Like, I'm tasting super earthy Mexican chocolate in this. And when you combine the hints of ash and heat with t

2017 Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

he slight alcohol burn inherent in this beer, it really feels like a Mexican stout. The spice flirts with cinnamon, and the base beer (BCBS Vintage 2017) is a chocolate bomb. It reminds me of the chocolate you might dip your churro in. A lot of people are reporting green peppers in this beer. I'm definitely getting some earthy, peppery notes, but it is more of a chili note. Maybe an Anaheim chili or a poblano note. Green pepper is a very distinct note in beer, typically associated with stale coffee. And that's really not what I'm getting here, but hey that is just my basic bitch palate. 

In terms of everything else....this is Bourbon County so you should know what to expect. There's the big base beer, which is assertive and sweet and bourbon-y. This year's vintage is all about the chocolate right now. So there's a prominent chocolate presence over-the-top. For whatever reason, the BCBS Coffee 2017 is a little thinner than the other variants. I'm guessing that is due to the blend of cold pressed coffee. It also has a slightly lower ABV than the base. It's still medium-to-full-bodied with good complexity and depth. And overall, this really unfolds in waves with lots of chocolate and ash up front; spice and peppery heat and alcohol and barrel in the mids; the lingering finish is smokey. It's basically like they accidentally brewed Prop 16. Again.

Rating: DECENT Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)  

Full disclaimer: I'm one of the fucking weirdos that LOOOVVESS Prop '16. If you found Prop '16 off-putting and/or disgusting, you will hate this beer. If you hate peppery notes or ash notes in your beer, you will hate this beer. The ash notes definitely drift into that cigar-y, smoked tobacco, smoked cigarette realm. And that's not gonna work for a lot of people. For me, I could see myself pairing this beer with some grilled steaks or a cigar. Fajitas even. It's too bad this beer was so limited and unavailable, because I think it has serious food potential. But as it is now it's a super hard beer to acquire and will likely be opened at bottle shares and loved by some and totally shit on by others. So good job Goose Island, and also fuck you.

Random Thought: A cursory observation is we should commend Goose Island for taking risks with new coffee blends every year. And we should criticize Goose Island for making so little of the coffee that you have no real good way of getting enough of this stuff to do verticals or to pop these bottles liberally with food. I mean there was SOOOO much regular BCBS available this year....why not give the people what they want. Oh well.